SHTANDART
Singing sea shanties aboard the replica of Peter the
Great’s naval ship Shtandart? A dream come true...
STORY MIKE OWEN
“I FLY TO YOU”
ONBOARD
T
wo summers ago I became a shantyman,
singing songs of the sea to anyone who
would listen. My band of fellow shantymen
and I love it. And when the good ship
Shtandart, a true replica of Peter the Great’s 1703
frigate, sailed into our own Swanage Bay on Dorset’s
coast last April, we didn’t miss the opportunity to get
aboard to belt out songs until the early hours. It turned
out the Russian crew loved a good shanty – and a
shandy, I might add, and rum, and vodka...
A dream, really, singing in such authentic
surroundings, and dreams are the very substance of
Shtandart. Her owner and creator, Captain Vladimir
Martus, a modest yet inspiring leader, dreamed years
back of recreating St Petersburg’s naval flagship of 1703,
both in memory of the city’s maritime history and to sail
her far abroad as a living museum and training ship. He
started with a huge chainsaw, then a waterside plot
gifted by the community, along with forest and parkland
trees for said saw to fell, plank and shape. It was
virtually the only modern tool in this true-to-originalproject. Vladimir had by his side two friends when they
began, and ended five years later with a build team of
60, just two professionals among them, launching their
completed, 113ft (34.5m) three-masted frigate in front of
40,000 well-wishers. It was 1999 and Classic Boat
reported from on board an early voyage.
Sixteen years on, Shtandart was in Swanage on
another kind of mission, film crew and actors teeming
across her decks to shoot the on-water scenes in ITV’s
Christmas feature film Peter & Wendy, a reimagining
of JM Barrie’s Peter Pan.
Vladimir and his crew were also busy promoting his
next, newly announced project, to build a full-size replica
of the Cutty Sark, the 19th century tea clipper, long
tourist-trapped in a dry-berth in Greenwich, London.
Filming done, Shtandart had an important date on the
south side of the Solent, a formal introduction to officers
and members of the Royal Yacht Squadron interested in
supporting the Cutty Sark 2 project.
With fair wind and tide, hauling lines, we left
Swanage pier, turning under engine, one of very few